OMG, I'm completely shocked. I remember watching Anna Nicole's show and feeling so sorry for Daniel. He seemed to be getting no parenting whatsoever. I imagined that he'd be working it all out in therapy for many years. I'm so sad to hear this news. He didn't have an easy childhood but, from what little I saw, he seemed like a good kid.

Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' - Isaac Asimov

I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"

This is not only tragic, it sounds suspicious. He was visiting Anna in her hospital room after she had given birth. Apparently she awoke during the night, and thought he was sleeping in a chair next to her. She tried to wake him up when she discovered he was dead, and set off an alarm for help. I agree with Critical, that he seemed to be a relatively good kid, and felt he appeared normal in spite of his mother.

Looks like you were right, roses...I read this morning that they suspect something "suspicious" happened to him, but they're waiting on toxicology reports to come back. What on earth could have happened in a hospital room with his mom right there, though?

TomKat Getting Married?

So the news is not-at-all-official: Us Weekly is reporting that Tom and Katie have set a date for their wedding. "DAYS AWAY!" the cover crows... which means there are but mere moments remaining in which to speculate on who will and won't be invited to the ceremony, which will either take place on top of the Scientology Center in LA, complete with circling news helicopters and the Goodyear Blimp, or in a cave somewhere outside Butte, Montana, with no one but the jackals in attendance.

Provided they go the deluxe route, the celebrity guest turnout could be spectacular. Will Smith and Jada will be there. And certainly Travolta and Kelly Preston, as well as Leah Remini and... uh, whoever she's married to or whatever. Perhaps some of the Washington Redskins defensive line will handle security.

But who won't get a save-the-date card? There's the rub. Obvs, Sharon Osbourne is out. Katie's ex Josh Jackson might be an awkward chat at the reception, and Van Der Beek is just a tool. I'm betting Matt Lauer is also not going to be welcome, because there's nothing worse than some glib guy getting up to make a toast. And I'm just taking a stab in the dark and saying that Sumner Redstone might be otherwise occupied that day.

Who am I missing here? Let's pitch in to help these kids tie the knot. Weddings are very stressful, even for us civilians, and don't forget, celebrities are just like us! PopWatchers, guest-list duties are all yours...

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer has been authorized to bring in a private pathologist to perform a second autopsy on her son, the head coroner in the Bahamas said Friday.

The reality TV star and former Playboy playmate found her 20-year-old son Daniel Wayne Smith unresponsive Sept. 10 in her hospital room, three days after she gave birth to a daughter. She called for help but doctors were unable to revive him.

The Bahamas coroner's office has termed Daniel Smith's death to be "suspicious." The term, however, meant the cause was not immediately apparent and did not necessarily imply foul play, head coroner Linda Virgill said Thursday.

The family's pathologist will arrive from the United States on Saturday and will perform the autopsy on Sunday, Virgill said. She said Smith's family requested it but did not specify which of her relatives did so.

"It is nothing unusual for families to want their own pathologist to confirm or look for something that may have been overlooked" in the autopsy by the coroner's office, Virgill said.

The results of the official autopsy, which was done Tuesday, have not been released. Virgill said a toxicology test would be completed next week.

A jury inquest, which could lead to the filing of criminal charges, is scheduled to begin Oct. 23. Witnesses including Smith, hospital staff and others who saw her son the night of his death were expected to be summoned.

Police who were called to the Nassau hospital did not find anything in Smith's room to suggest a crime had been committed or evidence of drugs, authorities said.

Smith supports the decision to launch an inquest, according to her Bahamian attorney, Michael Scott. "She fully wants this process to take place and she wishes the public to not jump to conclusions and to wait for the conclusion of the proceedings," Scott said Thursday.

Smith, who went to the Bahamas during her pregnancy to avoid media scrutiny, was unable to grant interviews, Scott said.

"She's resting. She's obviously devastated," he said. "It's going to take a long time to heal. She's in seclusion and she wants some privacy."

Police believe Daniel Smith arrived in the Bahamas on Sept. 9 and went directly to Doctors Hospital, a private facility in a stretch of downtown Nassau lined with small office buildings. He spent the night in a room with his mother and one of her attorneys, Howard K. Stern, and was seen tending to his mother and newborn half-sister.

On the morning of Sept. 10, the 38-year-old TV star noticed her son had stopped breathing and called for help, Scott has said. Hospital staff unsuccessfully tried CPR and other measures to revive him.

When police arrived, the body was on one of two beds in a room packed with doctors, other hospital staff, Anna Nicole Smith and Stern, said Reginald Ferguson, assistant commissioner for the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

Daniel Smith was the son of Anna Nicole and Bill Smith, who married in 1985 and divorced two years later. The son had small roles in her movies "Skyscraper" and "To the Limit." He also appeared several times on the E! reality series "The Anna Nicole Show."

The identity of the father of Smith's daughter has not been released.

Anna Nicole Smith married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994, when she was 26 and he was 89. He died the following year. She then feuded with Marshall's son, Pierce Marshall, over her entitlement to the tycoon's estate before Pierce Marshall died in June at age 67.

An initial judgment of $474 million in her favor was eventually reduced to nothing, although in May the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Smith could continue to pursue her claim in federal courts in California, despite a Texas state court ruling that Marshall's youngest son was the sole heir.

Pathologist: Anna Nicole's son on antidepressants
NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) -- Anna Nicole Smith's son was on prescription anti-depression medication when he died at the hospital bedside of the former reality TV star, a pathologist who did a second autopsy on 20-year-old Daniel Smith said Monday.

Forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht said Daniel Smith was being treated for depression that began about four to six weeks earlier, but he did not know whether the medication played any role in his death, which came three days after his celebrity mother gave birth in the Bahamas.

Wecht, speaking by phone from Miami a day after conducting the autopsy in the Bahamas, said he's still awaiting toxicology tests to determine the cause of death.

He said he and the Bahamian coroner who did the first autopsy agreed there was no evidence that Daniel Smith died from a "suicidal overdose."

Smith died September 10 in the hospital room where the former Playboy model was recuperating from giving birth to a daughter.

Wecht said he spoke to the psychiatrist who treated Daniel Smith and was told the dosage of the antidepressant medication was "quite low" and that the depression "had to do with a girlfriend."

He did not provide further details and said others, including Anna Nicole Smith's attorney Howard K. Stern, said Daniel Smith had seemed to be in good spirits in the days before his death.

"He was delighted. He was happy to be there with his mother and his sister," Wecht told The Associated Press.

Earlier, Wecht said the autopsies have ruled out several natural causes and that the results of the drug and chemical analyses could take weeks. Investigators have said they did not find evidence of drugs in the room or obvious signs of a crime.

Wecht, who gained fame as a consultant on celebrity cases including Elvis Presley's death, ruled out several potential natural causes including heart disease, stroke, or a "congenital anomaly." He also said there was no indication of foul play.

"I don't find anything that would cause me to believe there is something in terms of some traumatic injury having been inflicted, or somebody having done something to him in some cryptic manner that could not be observed," he said.

Bahamian pathologists performed an autopsy Tuesday and were expecting toxicology results this week, but the coroner's office has said the findings will not be released before a jury inquest scheduled for October 23.

Smith ordered the follow-up autopsy to end "media speculation surrounding the matter," said her Bahamian attorney, Michael Scott.

Head Bahamian coroner Linda Virgill said it was not unusual for families to ask for an independent examination.

A hearse took Smith's remains from the morgue to a funeral home making arrangements to return the body to California.

Wecht, 75, is facing trial on charges he used his staff when he was the coroner in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, to do work for his multimillion-dollar private pathology practice. He resigned from office in January and contends he did nothing wrong.

He received international prominence as a critic of the Warren Commission's single-gunman theory of President Kennedy's assassination.

Smith, 38, who came to the Bahamas during her pregnancy to avoid media scrutiny, is free to leave the Caribbean island chain, authorities have said.

Scott said Smith was not prepared to speak with the media.

"She is depressed and she's at home, and remember that she's got a new child that she's looking after," he said.